This invention relates to radical carcass tires, and in particular to radial carcass tires for use on aircraft. It is believed that in radial carcass tires the tension on the carcass reinforcing cords is lower in the crown portion of the tire than in the sidewall portions of the tire. Conventional radial carcass tires have reinforcing plies that extend continuously and uninterrupted from one bead portion of the tire to the other bead portion of the tire. However, it is known to manufacture radial carcass tires having carcass reinforcing layers that comprise a plurality of discontinuous plies. As used herein, a "discontinuous ply" is a ply of reinforcing cords that is anchored around only one bead core of the tire.
In the prior art, for example, FR Pat. No. 2,380,907 and German Pat. No. 1,505,108, describe radial carcass tires in which the carcass reinforcing cords do not extend continuously from one bead portion of the tire to the other bead portion of the tire. In each of these documents, there is illustrated a tire carcass having two layers of reinforcing cords comprising two discontinuous plies each, with each of the discontinuous plies extending from a bead portion of the tire into the crown portion of the tire. In German Pat. No. 1,505,108, the two discontinuous plies overlap causing an irregularity. In French Pat. No. 2,380,907, the two discontinuous plies are axially spaced apart beneath the tread reinforcing belt by a gap having a width in excess of one-half of the axial width of the tread reinforcing belt, thereby necessitating the use of an extra support layer to interconnect the two discontinuous plies of each carcass reinforcing layer.
The present invention provides a radial carcass tire having a carcass comprising two layers of reinforcing cords each of which does not extend continuously from one bead portion of the tire to another, and which does not have the disadvantages of the prior art tires of this type.